In the hazy morning light, in the old 70-square-meter apartment, Wanqiu opened her eyes on the single bed in the small room, glanced at the sky, and looked up at the alarm clock above her head.
With ten minutes left before the alarm went off, Wan Qiu turned it off.
The bedding and sheets were all neatly folded, the old little desk was spotless, and the stool was properly placed under the desk.
Wan Qiu glanced at the large bedroom with the door wide open. His mother, Ning Qiaozhen, was still fast asleep. He was alone; his father still hadn't come home last night.
Wan Qiu tiptoed and closed the bedroom door to avoid disturbing her.
After washing up, I opened the old, small refrigerator. The bright white light illuminated the inside, which was completely empty.
I reminded my mom yesterday that the refrigerator was empty, but she obviously didn't take it to heart.
Wanqiu knew exactly what was in the house, and there was nothing available to make breakfast.
Wanqiu returned to his small room, took out a worn five-yuan note from the few neatly arranged coins under the bed, and left the house with the money.
The weather has been bad these past few days; it's been quite windy, and even though it's summer, it's a bit chilly. He wore long sleeves today.
Wanqiu's hair, which hadn't been cut for a month since the start of summer vacation, had grown quite long and was a mess from the wind.
He put on the hood, but there was no drawstring to keep it from falling off, so Wanqiu could only hold it down with one hand.
A discreet black car slowly started up after Wan Qiuqian and followed him at a distance.
Wan Qiu brought out a crumpled plastic bag and went to rummage through the trash cans he passed, but unfortunately he didn't find anything.
It's too cold; most people wouldn't throw away beverage bottles in this weather.
Wan Qiu squeezed the five yuan in his pocket again. He was going to use the five yuan to buy some ingredients at the morning market and make breakfast before his mother woke up.
Suddenly, the sound of the plastic bottle rolling in the wind caught Wan Qiu's attention.
Across the street, a large iced tea bottle rolled and slid against the curb.
In the morning, there are few vehicles on the one-way streets of the dilapidated old town. There are no road signs, and most people just cross the road by jaywalking.
Because of the wind, Wanqiu didn't look around carefully and walked towards the empty beverage bottles.
beep beep—
A piercing horn blared, accompanied by a sudden screech of brakes. Wan Qiu felt his arm being scraped hard, and instinctively flinched backward.
The car stopped, and Wan Qiu leaned against the edge of the road, staring blankly ahead.
The black car that had been quietly following them stopped, and two tall, muscular adult men got out.
"Damn it, how could there be a car accident all of a sudden?" One of the men rushed to Wan Qiu's side, knelt down, and said anxiously, "Hey, kid, are you alright? Are you okay?"
Wan Qiu looked at the man in front of him. Although he had a fierce look on his face, his eyes were full of anxiety.
"How are you?" The man in front of Wan Qiu asked very carefully. "Where does it hurt? Is your leg okay? Hey, kid, say something."
The man became visibly impatient when he didn't get a reply from Wan Qiu.
Wan Qiu looked down at his elbow. The sleeve of his long-sleeved hoodie had been ripped open by a vehicle, and blood was flowing down his arm.
There was some skin abrasion on the part of my palm that was on the ground, and my wrist was also painful.
"You're bleeding, damn it! Don't move, I'm taking you to the hospital."
The man's panicked manner made it seem as if he were not treating a stranger. He suddenly picked Wan Qiu up horizontally, as lightly as if he were lifting a feather.
Wan Qiu was placed in the passenger seat. Just as the man was about to fasten his seatbelt, she finally reacted and pushed the man away.
The man stopped even though he wasn't using much force.
"I'm fine." Wan Qiu's voice was still young and hadn't gone through puberty yet, so it was hard to tell if he was male or female, but it was very calm. "It's just a minor injury."
"You're bleeding, how can it be a minor injury?" The man noticed that Wan Qiu's sleeve was already soaked with red blood.
Wan Qiu shook his head and covered the wound with his hand: "The bleeding will stop soon at this stage."
"This level?" The man frowned. This sentence sounded ominous. Did the child get injured so often that he didn't even care about injuries like this?
“It’s so dirty here, the streets are covered in oil left by street vendors. It will be troublesome if the wound gets infected.” The fierce-looking man reached out and put Wan Qiu’s hand down. As he wrapped his arms around the thin, frail wrist that looked like it could be broken with a single twist, he frowned subtly.
"I have no money." Wan Qiu refused firmly, then added after thinking for a moment, "Mom has no money either."
“I’ve paid for it. You need to go to the hospital now,” the man said.
"I don't know you." Wan Qiu tried to get out of the passenger seat, but her thin, underdeveloped body was no match for an adult male.
“If you’re worried about me, I can call an ambulance for you,” the man said directly.
Wan Qiu suddenly hesitated. Would calling the emergency services cost money?
He has no money.
But before Wanqiu could even finish his hesitation, the vehicle had already started moving.
Another blond man rushed straight to the driver of the car involved in the accident, angrily pulling open the car door: "How the hell do you drive? Driving on such a narrow one-way street without watching people? What if you hurt someone, you son of a bitch..."
The perpetrator was a thin taxi driver who was being harshly reprimanded by a tall, burly, blond man. He stammered in fear, "I...I didn't..."
Seeing that his companion had already carried Wanqiu to the passenger seat and was about to go to the hospital, the blond man immediately got into the passenger seat of the taxi.
"You come with me, follow that car in front!" another man shouted menacingly at the taxi driver, muttering angrily, "This is terrible, if that really is the boss's son, then we..."
The blond man dialed a number, and the other end answered quickly: "Hello?"
"Boss, that kid was in a car accident, it seems a bit serious, we're taking him to the hospital." The blond man's usually menacing voice became much more respectful after the call connected. "Yes, it's a minor accident, looks like he only suffered minor injuries... Do you want to come over... I understand, I'll give you the address..."
The taxi driver listened to the blond man's words. Although he didn't know what the 'boss' on the phone had said, his intuition told him from the man's angry and frustrated expression that this minor car accident might have turned into a major disaster.
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